...North Carolina is joining the growing ranks of states that have decided they can no longer shoulder the growing financial burden of the unemployed. But it stands alone in violating a law that disqualifies its jobless from collecting federally funded unemployment benefits, which would allow the state’s jobless to collect up to 47 weeks of additional aid.

The reason is the way North Carolina — which at 9.2 percent has the nation’s fifth-highest jobless rate — went about slashing its benefits.

Not only did the state reduce the maximum number of weeks someone could collect state benefits from 26 to 20, it also reduced the maximum weekly benefit from $535 to $350. On top of that, North Carolina is reworking how unemployment benefits are calculated, which advocates say will reduce the average weekly benefit from about $296 to the low $200s.

“It is a self-inflicted wound,” said George Wentworth, senior staff attorney of the National Employment Law Project...